Where there is no Vision the people Perish

Those ancient words of wisdom in the title of this blog echoed in my head as we lumbered down the interstate across the state of Minnesota.  We were on our 5^th day of travel into our sabbatical and tensions were high for the whole family.  They mostly stemmed from the enormous task ahead of us: get nine people in a van and RV to Kentucky as quickly as possible while still preserving our sanity (and love for each other!). 

The problems started each morning as each of us, exhausted from the previous day of stressful travel and chaotic schedule, struggled to pull ourselves out of bed and get ready to embark on that day’s journey.  We were stumbling around in the RV, no one quite sure of what to do next, everyone aware of the fact that we were wasting precious time and contributing to our increasing tardiness.  My response was to get frustrated at our inefficiency and yell at everyone to move faster.  This of course worked wonders for morale and executionJ.  I made my observations of the lack of a good daily routine known to my wonderful sleep-deprived wife and she responded with perfect insight, “then why don’t you create one?”  Ah, the simplicity of the obvious answer.

So I created a plain routine of what everyone should do each morning, and in what order, to accomplish our tasks with the most efficiency.  And I added to it what we should do every night to get the trailer set-up and what we should do every morning to get it ready for travel.  It is amazing what a little planning and direction can do for a family.  All of a sudden everyone knew what was expected.  All of a sudden everyone could apply themselves in cooperation to our corporate objective.  All of a sudden people were happier and calmer and lovelier to be around (especially me!).  And all of a sudden we were getting out on the road two hours earlier each day. J

-Roy